


Final Reunion

by DameGrise



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Alternate Universe, Challenge Response, Ficlet, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-19
Updated: 2011-06-19
Packaged: 2017-10-20 13:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DameGrise/pseuds/DameGrise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taura wants to see Miles before its too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Final Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a challenge at the lmb_challenge community on InsaneJournal before the most recent book came out. The prompt word was "stars." Also, I couldn't remember if the Triumph was still part of the fleet when Miles retired.

Miles was a married man now, so their final reunion wasn't everything a fairy-tale princess could wish for, but Taura was a practical soul. All that mattered was he had come in time, as he'd promised. Despite her acceptance by the Dendarii, Taura had half-expected rejection at the end when her metabolic overdrive pushed her into her final aging decline. She was no good as a soldier now, her long limbs and massive joints crippled by inflammation and painful knots of muscles and nerves that refused to relax. Her concerned co-workers, in effect her family, had moved her into a small, private room near the infirmary of the Triumph where the best of the fleet's doctors could keep an eye on her while Admiral Quinn sent for Miles.

"Come," she said urgently. "It's Taura's time."

Quinn ordered the fleet to Escobar, where they waited.

Some expected the chaos and magnificence that had marked his career as commander of the fleet to crash down upon them again when Admiral Naismith returned. Not everyone knew of his responsibilities and the promises he'd made not to let that happen. Many of the new recruits thought the Admiral was dead. So it wasn't the little Admiral come out of retirement who podded over to the ship.

It was only Miles.

Miles was enough.

He sat with Taura for hours while her mind wandered, her body fighting off the massive draughts of pain suppressants she was being given to ease her suffering. He talked. With chosen friends guarding the door and their privacy, he held her, saying good-bye, talking of the life they'd led, and his new life back home on Barrayar. When he spoke of Barrayar and his family, his Betan accent slipped as it never had even under the worst stress of his military career. Taura smiled, her long lips showing her teeth, and listened.

Barrayar didn't worry her. Nothing did so long as he was there, holding her claw-tipped hand in his rugged, small one. It seemed he was a big man on Barrayar now. She'd known that as far back as his wedding, her fairy-tale prince, her knight errant, who had rescued her from the dungeons of Jackson's Whole. Only that mattered to her now.

She didn't have to worry about Jackson's Whole or Barrayar or anywhere. When Miles had freed her for her mad dash through life with the Dendarii, he'd given her a dream, a heart and more. He'd given her the stars. **  
**


End file.
